The initial thoughts on the new Tomb Kings rule set have been positive, and most feel the list is as balanced as the Orcs N Gobbos army book release before it. But are they really? It’s been well over a month now since the release, and tournament players are starting to work out how to get the most out of the army, and folks such as the Ben’s on the Bad Dice Podcast have been suggesting that perhaps the magic phase and monsters may need to be restricted. I set out this week to see just how balanced the Nehekharain are?
Wayne Kempt hasn’t been the only one modeling with toys! Bad Dice fans have been doing a great job posting up pics of the new Tomb King monsters on the forums.
Manic Magic:
Kings of Magic? was an initial look at the new Tomb Kings magic deck before the release of the book. One of the major concerns the blogger Rehellion had pre-release was the inability for the Tomb Kings to get off their movement spell. At this point though I believe most players have decided that the defensive play style can help limit their lack of mobility. I think Russ_Veal put it best on Twitter when he suggested that the Tomb Kings play similar to the High Elves. Defensive with a destructive but fragile counter attack. Now after the release, Rehellion has picked up a Tomb Kings army, and is now more concerned about how an opponent can hold back dice to dispel the key TK spells. I agree that there are some key spells that I’d be holding my dice for, but if I’m holding my dice for one or two key spells than the TK player is going to be getting a few through, especially if they’ve enlisted to help of a Hierotitan and a Casket of Souls. Another great blogger and Tomb King player is Retroalias, and he, like Rehellion , suggests that the magic phase isn’t over the top, but is more like the old Tomb Kings magic phase, death by a thousand paper cuts because, although their are important spells there aren’t any massively game wrecking or unit deleting spells. I think this is a great point, and is just one of the factors that allows the restless dead of Nehekhara to slowly wear down their opponents, just as the desert slowly deteriorates all that try to conquer it!
Sectux over at the Baddice forums put together this great looking Herotitan! Checkout more pics of this awesome kit-bash!
Monsters:
Alex Read recently tweeted he’d had great success using a David Sweeting style ‘You’ve been...thunderstomped’ army. He had taken two Colussus, Warsphinx, and Necrosphinx. Clearly monster mash armies can easily have their day wrecked by a Dwarf or Empire army, but I think we will be seeing a lot these beasts on the table. Dan Byer suggests, in his in depth review of the army, the monsters are affordable, but have specific roles. The Warsphinx can be used to support combat units, the Colossus can be used as combat and shooting support, the Hierotitan does a great job at supporting the magic phase, and the Necrophinx is great for hunting monsters. Personally I’d be leaving the Necrophinx at home, and letting my catapult take care of opposing monsters. These three monsters contribute to the aforementioned death by a thousand cuts. None of them are going to steamroll you like an Abomination might, but together they support each of the Tomb King phases, and allow a Nehekhara army to grind you down. Overall I think the Tomb Kings will have much more success than there eighth edition brothers the Orcs and Goblins, but are thankfully another balanced edition to the game.
I’m interested to hear what you think of Tomb Kings? Leave a comment on the blog or on Twitter @FBroundup, or on Facebook.
Thanks for reading,
Mike Sweetman
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